Method of Sharpening Using Panchromatic Pixels

1. A method of sharpening a full-color image of a scene comprising: (a) capturing an image of the scene using a two-dimensional sensor array having both color and panchromatic pixels; (b) forming the full-color image in response to the captured color pixels and forming a reference panchromatic image in response to the captured panchromatic pixels; (c) forming a high-frequency panchromatic image from the reference panchromatic image; and (d) providing a sharpened full-color image in response to the high-frequency panchromatic image and the full-color image.

2. The method of claim 1 further including modifying the high-frequency panchromatic image prior to using such panchromatic image in step (d).

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the modification further includes coring the high-frequency panchromatic image.

4. The method of claim 2 wherein the modification is further responsive to the reference panchromatic image.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the modification further includes forming an edge mask and producing the modified high-frequency panchromatic image in response to the edge mask.

6. The method of claim 4 wherein the modification further includes forming an edge mask and coring and producing the modified high-frequency panchromatic image in response to the edge mask and coring.

7. The method of claim 1 further including modifying the reference panchromatic image to produce a modified reference panchromatic image.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the modification of the reference panchromatic image includes coring.

9. The method of claim 7 wherein the modification of the reference panchromatic image includes forming an edge mask and producing the modified reference panchromatic image in response to the edge mask.

10. The method of claim 7 wherein the modification of the reference panchromatic image includes photometric conversion.

11. The method of claim 7 wherein the modification of the reference panchromatic image includes forming an edge mask, coring, and photometric conversion and producing the modified reference panchromatic image in response to the edge mask, coring, and photometric conversion.